Going to jump in here.
I have a new car, it's about 5 months old and I really like it. I live in a small town, but work in another one about 10 miles away, and I need my car to get to and from work. Reason - there is no train station in the town I work, there is no bus service from the nearest station to the town where I work, and I also work shifts (tonight I'm starting work at 11pm), so using public transport isn't an option.
I also work some times 50-60 hours a week, get paid quite a bit, but the majority of my salary (in percentage terms) goes on my car, road tax, fuel tax, and don't forget tax on the insurance as well. And now, recently, we've just got shafted again since the government have voted to increase fuel duty in the new year by another 3 pence.
In October 2011 the cost of a litre of diesel was as follows -
51.1p for the actual fuel
58p for the duty
23.1p for VAT
1.5p for the cost of refining
4.7p retailer markup
So basically I pay duty to the government on the fuel, then have the privilege to be taxed on that duty, which also goes to the government. (figures from BBC website published 08/11/2011). So, duty will be increased by 3p, which also means the VAT figure will be increased because it's a percentage of the cost.
Lovely.
And I know what some people are going to say - you've got a new car so you must be loaded etc. etc. I actually had no choice in buying a new one, I'd driven my old one into the ground and to repair it would cost more that it was worth. I used it as a deposit for the new one, and only managed to do that because the one I have now is a model not made any more and the garage wanted to get rid of it. (and it's very nice too, which helps!)
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